440-Pound Teen May Be Biggest Football Player Ever

Like in the NFL and the world, not just in high school
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 25, 2015 5:38 PM CDT

When he was in sixth grade, John Krahn was 6 feet tall, and by the time he started high school, he had sprouted up to 6-foot-5. Now the senior football player for Southern California's Martin Luther King High School is a tremendous 7 feet tall and weighs 440 pounds, per MaxPreps—which notes that's nearly as large as the WWE's Big Show—likely making the Southern Californian not only the largest football player in high school, but the largest football player … anywhere, including in the NFL. He's also relatively new to the game. "I've had minimal experience," Krahn tells the site, which notes he does well with weights but struggles with his footwork. "I started in high school, but I've trained my way through, going to different camps."

His size means that "opposing lines have to team up to block him," notes Bleacher Report. He's already caught the eye of Division I college coaches who saw him play in USA Football's National Development Games in LA over the summer. Those coaches "said they'd consider offering him [a place on their roster] if he lost some weight," an events manager at USA Football tells MaxPreps. Which is exactly what Krahn is doing, sticking to a 3,000-calorie-a-day diet heavy on fish and chicken. His current team's head coach tells the site that Krahn, who's also known as "Junior" by his teammates, could start off at junior college first, then work his way up to a Division I team. SB Nation, which links to a 2014 profile on Krahn from the Riverside Press Enterprise, observes that with more experience and better mobility, he could emerge as a truly dominant player after high school. (Another high school football player says the Apple Watch saved his life.)

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